The fate of the Federal Aviation Administration remained in the hands of one combative senator — Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn — as the clock ticked on a deal that would prevent a Friday night shutdown of the agency.

But on Thursday evening, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced a deal had been reached with Coburn, averting both a weekend session and a repeat of this summer, when a partial FAA shutdown put thousands of aviation workers around the country out of work.

Only six senators, Coburn and five other Republicans, voted no on the transportation package.

“Righteousness has prevailed,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe, a fellow Oklahoma Republican who helped negotiate the deal.

Even though both parties in both chambers had signed off on an agreement this week, Coburn said he’d drawn a “line in the sand” over what he saw as wasteful spending in legislation that would temporarily extend funding for the FAA and transportation projects. And he had threatened to block the bill unless he got his way.

But under Thursday’s agreement, Coburn will be allowed to insert language into a longer-term highways bill that Democrats and Republicans will negotiate before the new round of funding expires in six months. Coburn’s provision would allow states to opt out of a program requiring them to set aside millions of dollars for beautification projects like bike paths, sound walls and decorative highway signs.

The conservative Oklahoma senator — known for singlehandedly holding up Senate business — had come under increasing pressure from his GOP colleagues and eventually relented. Earlier Thursday, they said he was demanding too much on a bill that was passed Tuesday by the Republican-controlled House and was being rushed through the Senate.

“I don’t think you can ever require acceptance of something in a 100-person body,” said Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, the top Republican on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. She said she didn’t think Coburn could “ask for the amendment to be accepted without a vote” and said, “I want FAA to pass without any delays. It’s too costly.”

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), a freshman moderate, said he didn‘t want to see a second shutdown and backed a temporary extension similar to the bill that the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), helped shepherd through the House.

“We need to reduce spending and cut out special interest provisions, but we should not let a gap in the construction program go forward,” said Kirk, whose state is home to the bustling O’Hare International Airport. “The economy is already teetering on the edge of a recession. So Congress should not repeat what happened with the FAA in August.”

While he said that he didn’t believe a shutdown was “imminent,” Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) said he wanted to “make sure that some of these programs that are vital do continue to go forward.”

The Senate Republican Conference chairman, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, said that Congress needs a “highway bill extension and we need an FAA bill extension. But in the Senate, we have different opinions, so we have votes on them.”

The transportation package, the product of a bipartisan agreement reached last week by congressional leaders, funds the FAA for four additional months and extends highway funding and the gasoline tax by six months. The highways law and gas tax don’t expire until the end of the month.

Coburn had indicated he was open to splitting up two bills, having the Senate quickly pass the FAA legislation, then sending it back to the House. But Senate Democrats were opposed to that path, saying it would cause unnecessary delay.

Coburn’s actions frustrated Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who singled him out on the Senate floor Wednesday and Thursday, twice referring to him as a “dictator” and saying that “about 80,000 people will be out of work because of the obstructionism of one man.”

Later Thursday, Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who heads the Environment and Public Works Committee, piled on.

“The bottom line is one person is holding not just one bill but thousands of workers hostage,” Schumer had told reporters.

When a standoff between House Republicans and Senate Democrats partially shut down the FAA for two weeks in August, 4,000 agency workers were furloughed and all airport construction projects came to a standstill. With Washington fixated on deficit reduction, the federal government was unable to collect about $380 million in airplane ticket taxes during that period because airlines didn’t have the authority to collect the fees.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had told POLITICO on Thursday: “We’re working to reach a deal before the deadline.” And there were some signs of cooperation. For one, Coburn agreed to allow the Senate to vote Thursday afternoon on a separate measure providing $7 billion in aid to regions hit by recent natural disasters.